There are reasonable information processing models of the recognition of words in isolation based on a century-long accumulation of data on younger subjects. These models include a number of subprocesses. We have designed tests for five of these subprocesses based on the models and on replicated experimental results and will administer them to four age groups: 16-18, 40-45, 62-67, 68 and up. Each test indicates whether the subject has used the particular subprocess predicted by the model. If the subject has not used the predicted process, the constraints of the model allow us to infer the subprocess actually used. The word recognition task used in all five tests is the lexical decision task, which requires the subject to indicate as quickly as possible whether a visually displayed letter string is English or a non-word. The measure of performance will be response time. The five subprocesses to be tested are: legality checking, phonemic lexical search, affix stripping, semantic processing in obtaining a lexical match, and use of special vocabularies in lexical search. Three questions will be answered: 1. Which subprocesses are bypassed by more of the older subjects than of the younger subjects? 2. Is there a tendency for those subjects who bypass one subprocess to bypass others as well? 3. Are subjects consistent in their subprocessing when retested?